If Music Be the Food of Love Play On
by FeralShadowwolf
Summary: When Sam's house gets flooded, she stays with Jack O'Neill until the repairs come thru. They spend the perfect day BBQing with friends, and the perfect night where the truth about how they feel might just come out. S/J. ONESHOT


"_I'm sure you've heard of Jack and Jill, they're the ones that fell down the hill... Put on your dancing shoes.... Put on your dancing shoes..._" Samantha Carter sang along, with each beat she swept the scrubbing brush round the plate. With Jack out, she decided to do something nice for him, namely cleaning the load of dirty plates and glasses that had amounted over the last few days. Of course, he had a dishwasher, but Sam had never liked them. She liked doing the dishes, it made her feel useful and she could see the product of her work. Her mother used to wash the dishes by hand; she guessed that was how it started. Over time, she learnt that washing to a playlist was more fun than just doing it without distraction. On her iPod she had constructed a 'washing' playlist which held only the most upbeat, optimistic, sentimental songs, explaining Cliff Richard's 'Dancing Shoes', one of her mother's favourites.

With Jack out, an errand he said, she didn't mind blasting her volume as far as it would go nor would she mind singing at the top of her voice; after all, it was only fun if you sang along. Sam was near finishing, feeling satisfied that she had almost completed her task. "_There's a boy I know, he's the one I dream of..._" Sam swayed her shoulders into Whitney Houston's song, "_How will I know? How will I know?... How will I know, if he really loves me, I say a prayer with every heart beat..._" Normally Sam might feel silly singing in someone else's house, at first it felt silly alone in her own house, but Jack's house was comfortably out in the woods, away from civilisation and anyone to judge her voice.

Unbeknownst to her, Jack had pulled into the drive and was now watching, what he could only describe, as the best thing he'd ever seen, apart from his son's birth. In his kitchen was Colonel Carter swaying along to what he determined to be a Whitney Houston song. What was even more perfect was the fact that Teal'c and Daniel were standing right next to him, witnessing the same sight. She faced away from them, but it was only a matter of time before she saw their reflection in the window.

"Umm, Sam?" Daniel bellowed, but it still wasn't enough to rouse her from her music, he could hear it from the door, she was really blaring it out. Jack and Daniel exchanged an amused smile. Trying a different tact, Daniel walked over to Sam and lightly touched her on the shoulder, making her jump half a mile in the air and raising her arm clenching in a fist, prepared to attack her assailant.

She saw Daniel's face mouthing her name; she immediately snatched the headphones away from her ears. "Daniel?" She glanced around the room, seeing both Teal'c and Jack with bemused looks on their faces. She stepped away from the sink. "I don't suppose there's any chance you didn't see that?"

"Even if we didn't see it, it couldn't erase the memory of hearing it." Jack smiled; Sam felt a warm heat flush to her face. "I thought, _we_," He looked to the other two, "Thought, you were enchanting."

"Indeed." Teal'c agreed, suppressing a small smile.

"Truly... unique." Daniel quipped, which was met by an evil stare from Sam.

"Had I known you guys were coming, I would have... buried my head in the sand or something." Sam murmured, drying her bubbly hands with the dish cloth. "Speaking of, what are you doing here?"

"Jack invited us, something about a BBQ?" Daniel replied, resulting in a surprised and questioning look from Sam to Jack.

"That was your errand?" Sam smiled.

Jack smiled knowingly, happy to have put one past Carter. "It was an errand... of sorts. How many guys do you know that would willingly go out and get you two more?"

Sam nodded her head in reaction, "You have a point."

Teal'c took a step forward into the room. "O'Neill, where is your barbeque? I would happily begin the feast."

"Good man, Teal'c, good man. Daniel will show you where it is, I'll just get the matches. Carter, you wanna grab a couple beers?" Jack suggested, almost feeling like he was at work, but not quite.

"Yes sir." Sam replied automatically, which was met by an irritated look from Jack, they'd had this discussion many times in the last couple of days. "Sorry, Jack." She corrected herself and went for the fridge as Daniel walked Teal'c outside.

Jack walked past Carter for the garage, but doubled back to bob his head just around the fridge. "Carter,"

"Yes si-Jack," She smiled, it still felt foreign on her tongue.

"I really did think you were enchanting." He gave her a boyish grin, the one she noticed every single time. She rolled her eyes and was about to quip back, when he added, "And I didn't know you were a Cliff Richard fan. Hell, I didn't even know you had an iPod."

"It was a gift from my dad at Christmas." She smiled, "He thought that I should live more 'in the now', clearly to him that meant fashionable electronic toys."

"Ah, the iPod is not merely a toy, it is one of this century's greatest inventions." Jack replied, "Forget the stargate, this is where the future is." He pointed to her blue iPod, and she laughed.

"As for Cliff, my mother was a fan. I guess listening to the music makes me remember her, it takes me back to a happy time." She divulged, it wasn't often she talked about her childhood, especially about her mother.

Daniel ducked his head around the back door. "You know in the time you get the matches, I could have built a fire by now."

"Ha. You couldn't build a fort without help." Jack rebutted, hands still in pockets.

"Ok, how about this then. No fire, no burgers." Daniel reasoned.

Jack thought for a moment. "The man's logic is unmatched. Sold, I'll be right out."

Daniel nodded, satisfied, leaving the two of them alone. "Well I believe I was getting the beer." Sam cleared her throat.

"And I was getting the fire sticks." He smiled, and just as he turned, said, "Oh, and I grabbed you a bottle of white, I left it in the car, help yourself."

Sam smiled, "Thank you Jack." She had once mentioned that there was nothing she liked more on a quiet night than sitting outside on a beautiful evening with a glass of white wine, and she couldn't help being glad he remembered.

**Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox**

The first batch of burgers were delicious, perfectly cooked and seasoned to taste. It turned out that Teal'c had developed quite an interest in the home cooking channel and spend much of his free time cooking. Of course, General O'Neill, unwilling to believe he would be out-staged in his own home decided to take charge of the second batch of burgers. These were burnt, decrepit burgers that were eaten with a pained expression by all, including Jack, but concluded that his burgers had 'more character' than Teal'c's, which preceded a half an hour argument about whether a burger can have character or not. Eventually Jack conceded, saying that Teal'c's burgers "may have tasted better in the technical sense of the word." Satisfied, Teal'c bared a victory smile and clinked bottles with Daniel who remained ardently on his side. Sam was torn between the truth, that the burgers made by Teal'c were much, _much_ better than Jack's, and her loyalty to defend him in an outnumbered situation.

The evening had come on quickly, the sun setting behind the trees on Jack's property. The afternoon had been spent in happy memories being revisited, new ones being made and a large proportion on Sam's sink singing extravaganza, as it was now to be named. As the evening cooled, so did their conversation, simply content to be together.

"It's getting cold out," Jack commented, finishing another beer.

"Indeed." Teal'c concurred. "Would it not be wise to invest in a patio heating system, O'Neill?"

"Well sure, but unless we got a pay rise I don't know about, then we'll have to rely on old-fashioned sweaters." O'Neill smiled sarcastically. Sam tried, but she couldn't suppress a shiver, which Jack noticed. "Speaking of, you need a jacket?"

"Oh no, I'm ok, I guess I just didn't notice the cold til just now. Besides, my other jumpers were ruined by the flooding in my room." Sam confessed, showing a slight smile.

"They were all on the floor?" Jack enquired, a look of surprise escaping his face.

Sam shrugged, "It was gonna be laundry day soon, and, well... ok, I'm a bit of a slob when it comes to my house."

"You're kidding." Daniel smiled. "You had me fooled, I always had you pegged as a clean-freak."

"Well, I guess you never really knew me." Sam smiled, taking another sip of wine. She wasn't sure how much she'd had to drink over the course of the day, it seemed that every time she came back out of the house her wine had been magically refilled.

"I'll grab you one of mine, hang on a sec," Jack rose out of the chair he had been plastered to for the better part of two hours and entered the house, met with some, but little, resistence from Carter. He re-emerged at the sound of the three of them laughing about something he'd missed. "What?"

"Oh, nothing." Daniel cleared his throat and tried to hide the smile the rest of them were sporting.

Shrugging it off, Jack knelt to put the jacket around Carter's shoulders, making sure she was ok. "Better?"

"Much." She smiled warmly, taking a split second to appreciate how close his face was to hers, and then pushing that thought away, realising that was the wine thinking.

The sky had mutated into intimate purples and deep oranges, the faint lines of the moon could be traced in the sky and Jupiter was just about visible. "This planet really is beautiful." Sam commented.

"Yeah... makes it easy to understand why we risk our butts protecting it." Jack smiled at her, and then took notice that Daniel was looking at him looking at her. Clearing his throat, he turned his attention to Teal'c, "What about you, Teal'c? Don't you miss your home world?"

"Just like you, I am attached to the beauty of my planet, and do, on various occasions, find myself missing it. However, I regard this planet to be my home now, and have learnt to appreciate it the way humans do." Teal'c answered.

"And we're glad to have you." Jack replied, staring into the sky.

The music in the house had taken a more relaxed tone as the evening progressed, going from the items on Carter's iPod, to Jack's collection of classic pop hits, to some of the music that Teal'c had been listening to recently, and finally, to Daniel's suggestion of calmer 'evening' music, as he called it.

Sam relaxed into her chair, and under Jack's coat, inhaling his scent left on the jacket, allowing the wine to relax the knots in her shoulders, and her legs feeling slightly heavy. Her eyes closed in contentment, hearing nothing but her friends' breathing and the quiet night air.

"Well, I guess we should be heading off." Daniel said after 10 minutes, finishing off his last beer. "It's getting late, and I can see we're keeping Sam up." He smiled as her heavy eyelids parted open to give him a satisfied comfortable smile.

"Oh don't mind her, she's always asleep." Jack commented, which was met by a playful kick by Sam. "Hey, watch the jeans." He joked.

"I, too, will be on my way. Thank you O'Neill, Carter, for the enjoyable afternoon." He bowed his head in gratitude as he often did.

"No worries whatsoever buddy," Jack remained seated, knowing that any form of contact with Teal'c was probably a mistake. "Thanks for coming."

"Free beer and burnt burgers? Who could say no?" Daniel quipped. "Seriously, thanks Jack, Sam. See you at the base tomorrow. I'll give you a lift back home Teal'c." Daniel started off, "Oh, and Jack, for the sake of the wildlife nearby, don't let Sam doing the washing up."

"Yes, ha ha, that's very funny." Jack said dryly, as Daniel and Teal'c slipped round to the front. Sam remained silent until she heard the car drive off, the silence between herself and Jack almost awkward, almost.

"I'll do the washing up, but I promise I won't sing." Sam vowed, truly believing that she would never live that moment down, at least not in this lifetime. It even made her rethink singing along to the washing up altogether.

"Tell you what, you do the washing up and I'll sing." Jack joked, "I warn you though, my voice has been known to cause a lot of jealousy over the years." Sam couldn't help but raise her eyebrows in curiosity and amusement. "Oh yeah, those near me have been jealous of those far _far_ away from me."

Sam let out a laugh, and relaxed her head back into her chair, staring up into the stars that from here seemed so far away. Jack hadn't taken his eyes off her face; the subtle natural light of the night illuminated the flicks of her hairs, the sparkle in her eyes, the dimple in her cheek when she smiled. Sometimes he wondered if he was the only one to see these things, or whether the whole world and beyond saw them and they all had the same trouble remaining neutral.

"Jack, can I ask you a question?" Sam tilted her head towards his, their chairs had subtly moved a little closer as the evening wore on.

"Anything." He replied, his voice no louder than a whisper, though it didn't need to be.

She stared at him for a moment, her stillness like a photograph breathing in front of him. "Was it my imagination or did my glass have magical top-up abilities?" He laughed with her, looking at his hands for a moment.

"Actually it's a Gou'auld device, quite useful at parties." He joked.

"Because I feel like I have drunk significantly more than one bottle of wine today." Sam smiled, "So my question is, how many did I have?"

He smiled, "I will just point out that you never refused a drink," Jack paused, "So if you include the one I gave you, plus the other two... my math suggests that you drank three."

"Three bottles?" Sam sat up straighter. "Huh... well, there's another first. I've never let a man feed me three bottles of wine in one day before." She smirked.

"I must be special." He half joked, and looked at her facial expression to see how she took that comment. Clearly it wasn't only her who'd had a few to drink tonight. Her smile lingered on her face as she nodded, as if to say yes, he was special. The spark between them in that moment lasted a few moments longer than it usually did, usually it flamed out before it had really begun. But here, alone on his porch, half drunk, there was the chance that they might be in serious danger of doing what they had never allowed themselves to do.

The music played quietly in the background, but as the evening wore on, either it got quieter outside or the music had the ability to raise in volume automatically. Sam blinked and drew back, aware of her own feelings, aware that she was in no condition to hold herself back, and worried that she had to force herself back in a way she had never done before. She rose out of the chair, Jack's jacket falling around her, and began to clear the plates. Jack watched her slender arms move about the table and her body, suddenly she tensed.

"Carter?" Jack asked instinctively. Sam couldn't help but notice the song playing in the background, the first few intro notes were unmistakeable.

She smiled, and turned back to him. "It's just this song, it's my parent's song. They used to dance to it in the kitchen when I was younger." She smiled nostalgically, ignoring the weight of the plates in her hands, enjoying Stevie Wonder's '_Isn't she lovely?_'

Jack rose from his chair, feeling his legs stretch out beneath him. He smiled, took the plates from her hands and placed them back down on the table, as she watched in amused confusion. "In which case, Colonel Carter, may I have this dance?"

She smiled, her mind almost telling her this was a trick, a deception, and her reasoning telling her this was nowhere near a good idea. "I don't know..."

He stood there with his arms open wide, refusing to put them down, a stubborn smile on his face. "Carter, it's just a dance, not a marriage proposal."

She loosened up and laughed, stepping into his body and placing her hand in his and his arm came round the small of her back. He swung her into the tempo of the music, the mixture of the saxophone playing and stepping in time with Jack made heat rush into her chest, her heart thumping just that much more than usual. He pulled her in close, holding her hand into his the warmth of his chest, and sang softly to her, "_I never thought that love with me, making one as lovely as she, isn't she lovely, made of love..._" She grinned, she couldn't help herself, "_Boy I'm so happy..._" He kept singing, if only to keep the smile on her face. "I told you I was a terrible singer."

"I think you're better than you think." She smiled, their eyes met, and didn't part; the music guided them rhythmically, synchronising their bodies as one, letting the melody envelop them within the night air.

They both knew the song would eventually end, reality would once again take hold and they would have to return to life as it was during the day. What they were doing was just self-destructive. It was playing with fire, and everyone knows that when you play with fire you get burned. "Jack..." Sam breathed, her tone was filled with regret, and sadness.

"I know." He nodded, he knew it all; this could never really happen, and flirting with it was a mistake, but it was one he couldn't help but make. "I know." His tone was hushed, their eyes were filled with mute frustration and the mutual thought that their not being able to be together was unfair.

"I wish every day could be like today, and every night could be like tonight." Sam confessed, leaning her head onto his chest; hers felt as if it were about to burst. Having feelings for someone you weren't allowed to have feelings for hurt, frustrated, and angered, her.

"Me too." Jack agreed, his cheek resting on her head, inhaling the natural fresh smell of her hair. "I wish there was a way..."

Sam breath caught in her chest, she could feel what might happen if they kept talking like this. Her eyes welled up, she knew this was a mistake before she made it, and that still didn't stop her. Sam broke away from Jack, hiding her face from him. "Jack, I can't do this. I'm sorry I shouldn't have come here of all places –"

"Carter," Jack began, wanting to stop her.

"I'll find somewhere else to stay." She finished, and began for the house, when his hand took her arm and kept her beside him.

"At 10 o'clock at night? Carter, just stay." He stepped toward her, bringing her face up to meet his. "I'm glad you came to me, I'll always be glad."

She half smiled. "It still doesn't help our situation though." She had held the tears back, but anyone could see she was struggling, he caressed her cheek, drying invisible tears.

"Then you're really gonna get mad at me..." Jack whispered.

"For wha –" He brought his mouth down to hers, his hand gently cupping her face. Her surprise was met by his passion; years of repressed feelings and denial came pouring out of his lips, and she found herself responding, pulling him in closer. Her eyes, at first open, closed in surrender to the moment, to the night that held them together. For this time, everything was perfect, everything was the way it was supposed to be, she was with who she had always wanted to be with from the start.

Slowly, and almost unwillingly, they broke apart, taking a breath, but holding each other close. "For that." He smiled. "Sam, I –"

"You just called me Sam." She smiled. "In eight years, you have never once called me Sam."

"Yes I have, just never to your face." He confessed, his thumb stroking the side of her soft cheek. They shared a moment, still in the wind, relaxing into each other.

"We're really in trouble aren't we?" Sam tried to stop smiling, but she couldn't, and couldn't remember for the life of her why she tried to stop. Her dad was right, this was it; not content, but happy, truly happy.

"I think I was in trouble from the first moment I saw you." Jack whispered, kissing her nose. "But I think for the first time, I know I can handle it. Sam I want this, I want us, I don't want to pretend anymore."

"I want this too." She breathed. "I've always wanted this. I was going to tell you that day..." She wanted to tell him now, she wanted to tell him she was going to tell him how she really felt when she came to him on the back porch and told him she had second thoughts about the wedding.

"I know you were." Jack confessed, Sam's smile fading from her face into confusion. "You caught me off guard, I didn't know if it was just wedding jitters or whatever. But when Jacob was ill, when I told you I would always be here for you, I realised then that if you didn't say it, I would have to. You've been part of my life for so long, it just took me until then to realise that, well, I don't want to live my life without you playing a much larger part in it."

Sam blinked and took a deep breath. "Pinch me," She murmured.

"What?" He laughed.

Sam smiled, somewhat embarrassed that he heard her. "You don't know how long I've wanted to hear that from you. It's surreal... this feels like... Are we in an alternate universe or something?" She joked. "An alien experiment?"

Jack nodded, "Good idea, eliminate the possibilities." She smiled along with him. "Ok, so assuming it's none of those, and it's not a joke?" She silently nodded in the negative, paired with a smile, "Good, just checking, that would be bad... So assuming it's none of those, that leaves that this is real." His eyes met hers.

"Real." She repeated, and he nodded. "You better be worth this."

He smirked, "I promise." She smiled, lifted herself up and allowed her lips to meet his, and somehow the only thing she could think as she kissed him was Faith Hill's song 'This Kiss': _It's that pivotal moment, it's impossible, this kiss, this kiss, unstoppable, this kiss, this kiss._

**xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo**

**Well I hoped you liked it - know that this was oneshot fluff, no sequel intended. I hope you liked it. The infusion of music was fundamental I wrote it listening to all these different songs as it just fit in my head. (BTW - we love reviews =P)**

**Stay awesome u guys  
-Feral**


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